5th Sunday of Lent (B)

Short Reflection for the 5th Week of Lent (B)

Readings: Jeremiah 31: 31-34; Hebrew 5: 7-9; John 12: 20-33

Selected Passage: “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit.” (Jn. 12: 24)

Meditation: In the coming days, the mystery of “falling and dying” and “producing much fruit” will unfold in that event of Jesus’s dying for us and rising from the dead.

On the night of 26-27 March 1996, the seven Trappist Monks of Tibhirine, Algeria were kidnapped and murdered by beheading. Their martyrdom is akin to the OMI Martyrs in Sulu and Tawi Tawi – Bishop Benjamin de Jesus (February 4, 1997); Fr. Benjamin Inocencio (December 28, 2000); and Fr. Jesus Reynaldo Roda (January 15, 2008). These martyrs are witnesses to that mystery of “falling and dying” and resurrection of Jesus that others may have life. See: http://badaliyya.blogspot.com

DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD...

Dhikr is an Arabic word for remembrance. In the “tariqa” (the way) movement, dhikr developed into a form of prayer… It is a prayer of the heart… following three simple steps:

1.    Write in one’s heart a certain passage of the Holy Writ…

2.   Make the same passage ever present in one’s lips. 

3.   Then wait for God’s disclosure on the meaning of the passage…that interprets one’s life NOW…!

It takes a week of remembering (dhikr)…or even more days to relish the beauty of this method…